Re: FYF Fest 2013

Originally Posted by gazercmh

I've seen Yo La Tengo a dozen times over the last 20 years and their FYF set was one of my least favorite. There were some nice moments but overall I thought it was pretty snoozy. I know Ira loves to do the delicate wispy thing, and that's cool, but they used to balance that with a lot more sizzle. Someone commented on here about Ira being a guitar god, but his FYF performance was a shadow of the jams I'd seen him do in the past. I particularly disliked the acoustic Tom Courtenay with Georgia doing the vocals. That is such a powerful song when they do the great backing vocals, but the FYF version had no life to it. I wasn't crazy about the Autumn Sweater arrangement but I thought it was funny when Georgia worked in a little bit of the beat from the Kevin Shields remix, presumably because he was on site. I kept hoping they'd play a rocker like Sudden Organ but when they started into Blue Line Swinger, I decided I didn't want to wait for that to build and headed over to see !!!, who offered some much-appreciated liveliness.

Could not agree with this more. FYF Fest was my 8th time seeing them, and it was easily their worst performance. Set had very little energy and for a group with such a prodigious back catalog of tunes that would have rocked the crowd, they went with their newer and considerably more mellow songs. You could hear a pin drop during parts of their set; which is cool at the Troubadour, but doesn't work so well at an outdoor fest. And, as far as classic material goes, they played both Tom Courtenay (acoustically) and Autumn Sweater at both their sets I saw earlier this year, so this just felt really lazy to me. I was pretty bummed at YLT. But Melvins made me feel better.

Re: FYF Fest 2013

Originally Posted by PointBlank

Could not agree with this more. FYF Fest was my 8th time seeing them, and it was easily their worst performance. Set had very little energy and for a group with such a prodigious back catalog of tunes that would have rocked the crowd, they went with their newer and considerably more mellow songs. You could hear a pin drop during parts of their set; which is cool at the Troubadour, but doesn't work so well at an outdoor fest. And, as far as classic material goes, they played both Tom Courtenay (acoustically) and Autumn Sweater at both their sets I saw earlier this year, so this just felt really lazy to me. I was pretty bummed at YLT. But Melvins made me feel better.

I'm glad I skipped them. I love the hell out of them but their live shows can be very snoozy. Though I did like them at Solid Sound.

Re: FYF Fest 2013

Yea, I'm glad some people are chiming in about YLT not being that great at FYF. Was starting to think it was just me. Very little energy compared to what I expect from them, was kind of disappointed with the song choices for the portion of the set I saw. (I ended up walking away about 1/2 or 3/4 of the way through because it was pretty boring to me).

Re: FYF Fest 2013

Originally Posted by chiapet

Yea, I'm glad some people are chiming in about YLT not being that great at FYF. Was starting to think it was just me. Very little energy compared to what I expect from them, was kind of disappointed with the song choices for the portion of the set I saw. (I ended up walking away about 1/2 or 3/4 of the way through because it was pretty boring to me).

I saw them for the first time and wasn't totally familiar with their material. They didn't do a whole lot for me, though it was certainly listenable. I used the time to sit back, listen and take a break from the afternoon to gear up for the evening sets.

Re: FYF Fest 2013

My last two recordings. I thought I had recorded a partial YYY set, but I apparently never hit 'record' on my device prior to them playing. Not a big deal as I left that set early anyway, but it's definitely a wake-up call to always double/triple check that you're actually recording prior to a band taking the stage. Anyway, my last two sets are the Breeders, and about 15 mins of the SMD DJ set before I left to go see the YYY. That's it, that's all my recordings, hope you liked.